Editorials from around Pennsylvania

Bipartisan action in Congress may be rare these days, but Pennsylvania lawmakers want to step across party lines to honor some important history.

Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and Republican Sen. Pat Toomey and Rep. Scott Perry have introduced legislation in both chambers that would preserve two historic sites in Gettysburg.

The bills would expand the Gettysburg National Military Park by 45 acres at Big Round Top and place the Lincoln Train Station, where President Lincoln arrived before delivering the Gettysburg Address, under the control of the National Park Service.

Before the land and station acquisitions can occur, they must be OK'd by Congress. But the language in the House and Senate bills differs slightly. Rep. Perry's bill requires that the land and station be donated, while the measure by Sens. Casey and Toomey would allow them to be purchased after no-cost alternatives have been exhausted.

The difference hardly seems to matter, based on what is happening in Gettysburg. Because of a series of donation-based transfers between the National Military Park and the Gettysburg Foundation, no federal money will be involved. Therefore, either bill would support preservation of the historic sites, by authorizing expansion of the national park and breathing life back into the Lincoln Train Station.

Sen. Toomey told the York Daily News that he was "cautiously optimistic" that some form of the legislation would be enacted; a spokesman for Sen.

Advertisement

Casey's office said he believed the two versions could be reconciled.

Let's hope so. At a historic site known for conflict and division, it's good to see Pennsylvania lawmakers putting aside partisan differences to enhance Americans' understanding of Gettysburg.

—The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

KANE MUST SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE BAN

So long as she is the state attorney general, Kathleen Kane must defend the state's ban on gay marriage. While that ban is discriminatory and increasingly unpopular, it remains the law on the books. It is inappropriate for Kane to let her personal conviction trump her role as Pennsylvania's chief lawmaker.

On Tuesday, a federal lawsuit was filed against Pennsylvania challenging its state law banning same-sex marriage. In theory, Kane—who is on the record as supporting gay marriage—would defend the state's ban in court. As attorney general, Kane took an oath to uphold the state's constitution and laws. State law gave Kane the flexibility to instead have the case argued by attorneys in the governor's office or elsewhere in the executive branch. On Thursday, she chose that option.

Throwing the case to Gov. Tom Corbett set a terrible precedent, however. Essentially, taking that route says it's OK for the attorney general to take a pass on any case that doesn't mesh with his or her personal beliefs.

That said, Pennsylvania's gay-marriage ban deserves to fail in court. The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled the Defense of Marriage Act—a discriminatory Clinton-era law that barred same-sex couples from being recognized as equal to heterosexual couples at the federal level—is unconstitutional. If the court is to remain consistent, it also would strike down Pennsylvania's ban.

Increasingly, that's what the majority of Pennsylvanians want. A poll conducted by Susquehanna Polling and Research found that more than 70 percent of Pennsylvanians support a ban on discrimination against individuals based on their sexual orientation, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported in May. A Franklin & Marshall College poll shows support for gay marriage rose from 33 percent in 2006 to 54 percent this year, the paper said. Among younger voters who ultimately will determine the state's fate, support for gay marriage is even more overwhelming.

But this isn't about gay marriage. And it's not about polls. It's about an attorney general's lack of commitment to doing the job she was elected to do. In this case, Kane failed to put aside her personal beliefs and deliver a defense of the state's gay-marriage ban. It's what voters put her in office to do.

— The (Carlisle) Sentinel

CORBETT'S AGENDA ITEMS ALL HAD FLAWS

Pennsylvania's roads and bridges are in bad shape. School taxes have shot up, in part, to cover districts' higher contributions to state pensions. And customers regularly complain about the state's antiquated system for selling liquor and beer.

So why doesn't Pennsylvania's 2013-14 budget, which Gov. Tom Corbett signed on June 30, solve any of these challenges? Corbett described all of them as top priorities in his budget proposal. Yet even with Republican majorities in the state House and Senate, Corbett's ambitious agenda failed.

Because the state Legislature passed the budget on time, "I can't be disappointed," Corbett told reporters on the night of June 30 after signing the budget bill. "I have to thank the people for what they did and I certainly encourage them when they get back in the fall; Let's get it done," he told the Patriot-News in Harrisburg.

There are compelling reasons to address all three of Corbett's priorities but the governor's approach didn't work and each of his proposals has flaws.

Adequate funding to repair roads and bridges and to pay for mass transit should have received broad support from Republicans and Democrats. Citizens are well aware that Pennsylvania leads the nation in the number of bridges that are structurally deficient and state highways have taken a beating.

Corbett set up an independent commission to recommend new sources of revenue for transportation. The governor then followed up on the commission's recommendations by proposing an increase in wholesale taxes on gasoline, with the higher cost likely passed along to motorists.

Democrats refused to support the transportation plan from the governor, who has refused to raise taxes for anything else. Still, Corbett might have been able to forge a consensus if he had recognized that he needed Democratic votes to pass his transportation plan and then tried not to alienate them on other issues.

But instead of trying to build bipartisan support for at least one agenda item, Corbett unveiled a privatization plan for the state liquor system that included costly fees that favored big retailers and irked beer distributors. His plan also provoked the usual litany of complaints from Democrats that state jobs would be eliminated.

Corbett also distracted from liquor privatization when he forged ahead to contract with Camelot Global Services, a British company, to run the Pennsylvania Lottery. Attorney General Kathleen Kane ruled that Corbett's plan is unconstitutional, but Camelot has extended its bid until July 31 and Corbett is rewriting the contract.

With his pension reforms, Corbett wanted to move current state employees and school workers into 401(k)-style, defined-contribution plans. Was it ever reasonable to expect that current state legislators would kick themselves out of their own pension plan?

To achieve his goals in the fall, Corbett must set priorities on the three agenda items, woo some Democrats and stop betting on lottery privatization.

———

Erie Times-News

SILENCE IS DEAFENINGIN WILKES-BARRE GUN VIOLENCE

Wilkes-Barre has, statistically, become the gun-death-of-the-month club. Six firearm killings since January, to be precise.

As a page 1A story in Friday's Times Leader pointed out, the city is also close to having a robbery involving a gun every week—20 such offenses so far this year. That's an 81 percent increase from the same stretch last year.

The depressing news continues. Serious crimes—homicide, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, theft and stolen vehicles—are up from 675 to 816, a 21 percent increase. Lesser crimes, including simple assauts, drugs, vandalism and prostitution, are up from 947 to 1,125, a 19 percent jump.

These are disturbing figures in any city, at any time. In Wilkes-Barre, they are made more troubling by the trend of the surrounding area. Luzerne County has seen a 26 percent drop in serious crimes, and that decline comes despite the fact that Wilkes-Barre's numbers are included in the calculation,

Which obviously suggests offenses have dropped even more elsewhere, and that the county total is pushed up by the spike in the Diamond City.

So what is the city's response?

Silence.

At a time when Mayor Tom Leighton and/or Police Chief Gerard Dessoye should come forward with reassurances, rebuttals or a plan to reverse the trend, they say nothing.

In fact it was only about a month ago that Leighton was insisting crime was down.

This is almost certainly a problem without a simple solution. No one should expect Leighton or Dessoye to come up with some quick fix. Money is too tight to put more cops on the street, or to increase drug and gang busting operations.

It doesn't help that any mention of a gun culture or gun control ignites a firestorm that destroys pragmatic debate. This reality was exemplified by the U.S. Senate's failure to pass a bipartisan universal background check bill proposed by two conservatives with high ratings from the NRA—despite overwhelming public support for the idea.

This is a tough issue that requires an honest public response. It probably also requires a broader response at the state and county level. So, no, city officials need not stand before a microphone and speak Pablum nor pie in the sky.

But they do need to speak.

— Times Leader

WILD WEST AUCTION CLOSES A SORRY CHAPTER OF THE STEVE REED ERA

With this week's auction of Wild West artifacts, a sordid chapter in Harrisburg's history is coming to a close.

Amassing the artifacts, often at inflated prices, for a museum that never materialized, using funds snuck through the Harrisburg Authority, well away from public attention, with sloppy or non-existent records to document their real historic value, was one of then-Mayor Steve Reed's most egregious sins. Compounding his excesses, Reed once used the artifacts as collateral on a stop-gap financing deal to fill a hole in the city budget.

Reed spent about $8.3 million on the Wild West collection and other now-orphaned items. The city will be lucky, very lucky, if its final take from unloading them is anywhere close to half that much. (A previous sale netted $1.7 million, and a legal settlement against a vendor for selling bogus artifacts brought in $450,000.)

Shoddy recordkeeping and slapdash storage have ruined the value of many supposedly rare items for which Reed paid handsome sums. (He was known among collectors and vendors as a "sitting duck," someone who would pay "top dollar and then some.")

At one point, a city audit estimated a value of $73,000 for items that cost Reed about $2.1 million. The city's recovery plan guesses that selling the remaining artifacts will net a half-million dollars, though the city's auction house is much more optimistic.

What lessons can be drawn from this sorry episode in Harrisburg's history?

First, supposedly "independent" governmental authorities require close and consistent public scrutiny. Yes, they are useful financial tools for raising money on favorable terms to spend on particular public functions or projects. But they can easily become fiefdoms for the politicians that control them. There's a pretty good chance that those politicians, and their patrons, cronies and hangers-on, will try to use the enterprise as an ATM, churning out contracts and cash to play with.

A second lesson is beware the wheeling-dealing politician with a reputation for getting things done. The things that get done may not be worth doing, and there's a good chance the methods used will have trouble withstanding public scrutiny.

The Wild West artifact fiasco definitely contributed to Mayor Reed's political demise. But that's the only consequence he will suffer for this instance of rolling the dice with public money and coming up snake eyes. As spectacularly bad as this episode of his rule was, in this case it appears his offense was monumental egotism and abysmal judgment, rather than a crime that can be prosecuted.

Besides a degree of closure, the Wild West auction brings this consolation: Every dollar it produces is a dollar that local taxpayers won't have to pay as the city pulls itself out of the smoking financial crater that Steve Reed left behind.